Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Alice Springs first ultra modern operating session

Hi All

Firstly I must thank, Roger for helping with setting up the locomotives for this session the night before, and driving the apple TV and Youtube, you got the hang of it!

So in less than 24 hours we took down the remaining parts of Barcoola and got Alice Springs up and running, locomotives tested and wagons etc positioned.

I must thank the operators who, without them would not have happened, in no particular order.
Bill for his first "pull of the throttle" in Alice Springs in HO, you did a great job on the Ghan, followed the instructions to a T, its A little tricky! Onya!
Doug (late comer)
Dave (could not get him outa the ute!)
Rick (thanks man, learned sooooo much about Canada)
Glen, (the admiral).

here is some pictures I set up following the Ops session.

AD8 with AN3 attached, is fueled by Tim the fuel man, at Alice Springs prior to departure to Darwin

DA2 heading south across Bow River bridge.



AD1 at Alice Springs.



The staging yard with job cards added.


DA2 through Heavitree Gap

I made up some operational cards with instructions for each train of shunt.
See below:


Added the layout skirt, so the room looks more complete.
We had four mainline trains.
AD1
DA2
AD8
Ballast job.
and
Six shunt jobs.


While this is a great stepping stone, have plenty to do.
1. Get an Apple TV for the front room with the comfy couch.
2. Another standby couch so everyone is comfortable.
3. Another coffee table.

Train wise, here is a short list of things I need to do.
1. get stacks of custom decals apply then and then start the weathering. (Dougs comment noted).
2. Sound chips to install.
3. change out the last of the Auscision type couplers.
4. Change the wheels on the FQAYs.

I am concerned that once again we were let down by the performance and erratic behavior of the Southern Rail Models L class, this time 3103, So thats two failures so far, and I have not run the third unit.... yet!  Very disappointing for a new out of the box model.

Layout wise.
1.  Rebuild one side of Heavitree gap, Dave is itching to get into that.
2.  Fencing, for the industrial area.
3.  Cover all the buildings.
4.  Get the turn table operating.
5.  Triangle board for Bow River.

I will just pick away at the items above, and we will see how we go.

Regards.

Scott

2 comments:

  1. Very cool and great shots. Just an idea that maybe you shouldn't call the fiddle yard the fiddle yard, but rather call it Darwin or Adelaide; just adds that extra dimension.

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    1. Hi Chris sure I was thinking about that, figured I would name every storage road a loop, so from the south end, name it Barcoola, and the north end say Tenant Creek etc this way the train ends up in the right road in the fiddle yard. Thanks for your comment! Scott

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